Dont like the reader

The content is interesting but boy the readers are annoying. It kept changing readers in between and two of the reader have strong chinese accent. For audio book purpose, it is very hard to understand the accent unless you concentrate very hard.

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4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

A bad recording

I was very interested in the subject but the audio quality isn’t great because the mic peaks and glitches out often. Should re-record.

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2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Poorly written, misleading, and the performance a bit racist

Firstly, the author mistakenly refers to the mythical figure Jesus Christ as an historical one. Secondly, the Qin Dynasty is frequently mispronounced as the “Qing” (which occurred much later). Overall, the pronunciation of Mandarin words contained are dreadful, but to confuse the two dynasties is unforgivable. It also claims the Han Fei Zi was the major proponent of Legalism, though that’s markedly false since Shang Yang was the first to utilize and promote it with Duke Xiao of Qi. It also unfavorably paints Legalism as brutal and and needlessly authoritarian. Although in stark contrast to the “benevolence” of Confucianism, Legalism held everyone, peasant to king, to the rule of Law.

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1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Good basic framework made interesting

For those interested in Chinese topics this overview gives a good framework of Chinese philosophy/religion, its chronology and major players until early modern China or just before. The clarity of language and how different thought leaders built upon or related to each other is very helpful. This framework could be used as a base to investigate related social history of different periods. Most of all it resists generalizations until the brief end summery, which makes it interesting.

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Decent introduction to Eastern Philosophy

This story provides a decent overview of the basic concepts of Eastern Philosophy. Easy to understand and gain a general overview.

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good so far

what is with the 8bit beeps and bloops sound fx? the only thing I don't like lol.

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worth multiple listens!

This covers both the historical importance of these great thinkers as well as their individual teachings and philosophies.

an excellent book worth multiple listenings.

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OK for what it is, but...

The content of the book is OK for what it is, an overview of some aspects of Chinese philosophy.
But...

There are two major problems with the reading that are distracting and even offensive.

The first is that the narrator does not know how to pronounce Chinese names, which is problematic for listeners who do. Worse, she seems to over-emphasise the "foreignness" of certain words in a way that is perhaps meant to make it seems she knows these concepts and knows what she's talking about. It really backfires, and instead ends up feeling like a move towards other-ising the concepts and the cultures from which they come.

Even worse is the reading of the passages quoted from Chinese philosophy texts. A different reader is used for these sections, and he has a very thick accent that ends up making it feel like a parody. It reeks of a Fu Manchu type of representation, especially because it is such a contrast to the very British accent of the narrator. In the end, it just comes off as extremely patronising and even racist. It's awful to see that.

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Wonderful start

This book is geared more towards exposing one to Easter Philosophy and spiritualism, which is good. That’s what I showed up for! I feel like the actual quoted texts from the subjects were too glib and lacked wholistic context, so needless to say the follow up reading list will be a long one. It does give you some of the wonderful highlighted insights and examples of the major schools of thought in Chinese culture. If you want to know more, here is a wonderful index.

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A very good introduction

This work does a good job of explaining the origins of Chinese philosophy, which is based mainly on social norms and traditions more than a mythological belief system. It goes further to explain how Chinese philosophy has changed through several movements in history and how closely it related to Buddhism. I found it interesting how many of the teachings seem to parallel the teachings of Jesus. It makes one wonder how much Judaic thought was influenced by Eastern traditions.

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